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The Baltimore Orioles Thread (merged)

As an Oriole fan, this has been a tough year. But I am greatly encouraged by the statement that Peter Angelos put out yesterday. Here is the link and a couple of paragraphs, but it is worth reading the full article.

I am glad Mr. Angelos has spoken out and promised a bright future, and this was definitely needed at this time in the history of the Baltimore Orioles.

"There is a formidable challenge because of the size of their payrolls," Angelos said about the Yankees and Red Sox. "We would like to compete with them. We lost a couple of very close games to Boston and New York this week, and I think if we would have had our first-rate second baseman [Brian Roberts], 40 percent of those games would have been a victory, or perhaps even higher...

The Orioles are expected to be active in free agency and Angelos said he does not foresee trouble acquiring attractive free agents. In the past few years, Baltimore has been passed over by premium players for more fruitful contract offers, while others have noted the Orioles' lack of recent success and also the unenviable task of overcoming Boston and New York.

"We appreciate the fans' support [during the tough times]," he said. "And we're going to demonstrate our appreciation by winning. I have never heard of a player who refused to come to Baltimore to play when he's been offered a competitive contract. Baltimore is a great baseball town, with great fans, a beautiful ballpark and a good organization. We will get the players necessary to be successful."

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Originally Posted by bobby jr

"There is a formidable challenge because of the size of their payrolls," Angelos said about the Yankees and Red Sox. "We would like to compete with them. We lost a couple of very close games to Boston and New York this week, and I think if we would have had our first-rate second baseman [Brian Roberts], 40 percent of those games would have been a victory, or perhaps even higher..."

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Originally Posted by bobby jr

As an Oriole fan, this has been a tough year. But I am greatly encouraged by the statement that Peter Angelos put out yesterday. Here is the link and a couple of paragraphs, but it is worth reading the full article.

I am glad Mr. Angelos has spoken out and promised a bright future, and this was definitely needed at this time in the history of the Baltimore Orioles.

"There is a formidable challenge because of the size of their payrolls," Angelos said about the Yankees and Red Sox. "We would like to compete with them. We lost a couple of very close games to Boston and New York this week, and I think if we would have had our first-rate second baseman [Brian Roberts], 40 percent of those games would have been a victory, or perhaps even higher...

The Orioles are expected to be active in free agency and Angelos said he does not foresee trouble acquiring attractive free agents. In the past few years, Baltimore has been passed over by premium players for more fruitful contract offers, while others have noted the Orioles' lack of recent success and also the unenviable task of overcoming Boston and New York.

"We appreciate the fans' support [during the tough times]," he said. "And we're going to demonstrate our appreciation by winning. I have never heard of a player who refused to come to Baltimore to play when he's been offered a competitive contract. Baltimore is a great baseball town, with great fans, a beautiful ballpark and a good organization. We will get the players necessary to be successful."

He's right, Baltimore is a great baseball town. I just wonder if Washington will get as many premier free agents as Baltimore because earlier in the season I heard that the Nats were outdrawing the O's in attendance. Anyways, I wouldn't mind seeing a Yankees-Orioles ALCS.

Disco Stu:
Nick Swisher has agreed to a $56 mil, 4 year contract with the Cleveland Indians. Good riddance!!!

teknetic
.268/.367/.483 .850 during his four years here. Can we get rid of you instead?

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

I'll believe it when I see it. There mantra this year was, "We need pitching." What did they do? Why, go after offense of course. The Orioles are a franchise that looks as if it is beggining to go into a downward spiral, and it can be attributed to the very top of the orginization.

"We will get the players necessary to be successful." Hey, Pete, what "players" are you expecting to get this offseason? After about 3 or 4 players, there is a serious drop off in talent. Why dont you put some of that money into your farm system and scouting.

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Originally Posted by DontHateOnNumber2

He's right, Baltimore is a great baseball town. I just wonder if Washington will get as many premier free agents as Baltimore because earlier in the season I heard that the Nats were outdrawing the O's in attendance. Anyways, I wouldn't mind seeing a Yankees-Orioles ALCS.

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Baltimore 2,587,983 , average per game 32,349 number 5 in AL Attendence for 2005. Pretty good considering.

Not to nitpick, but given that the Orioles were in first place for almost half the season, it's not a surprise that they sold a lot of tickets in that time frame. I imagine day-of-game sales plummeted as the O's fell in the standings, but the "false start" this year is going to make it that much harder to sell tickets next year. They will really need a splashy off-season, and I'm not even sure that the free agents are out there to do it.

Having said that, the Orioles WILL be a better team next year. They have a couple of nice young pitchers that are going to be a year older and a year BETTER (contrasted with the Sox and Yanks, whose staffs will simply be a year older, by and large). Maybe signing Burnett will be enough to raise this team to contention, but I bet O's fans will need a lot of convincing.

"...it was blood, my blood, and it was coming from the sutures in my ankle. You’re either stupid or bitter if you think otherwise." --Curt Schilling on the Bloody Sock, 3/17/07

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

The Orioles had some tough injury breaks this year, and that always hurts a team. But hearing Angelos talk about making his team successful (and hearing a baltimore fan express optimism over that) is really most amusing. Here's a guy who consistently spends his team's money poorly. Whatever level of payroll the O's have, they almost always underperform compared to other teams around the league. I'm not sure what more a guy can do to prove he can't put together a winning team. But no skin off my nose if some want to believe that for some unknown reason he's finally figured it all out.

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Originally Posted by CTSoxFan

Not to nitpick, but given that the Orioles were in first place for almost half the season, it's not a surprise that they sold a lot of tickets in that time frame. I imagine day-of-game sales plummeted as the O's fell in the standings, but the "false start" this year is going to make it that much harder to sell tickets next year. They will really need a splashy off-season, and I'm not even sure that the free agents are out there to do it.

Having said that, the Orioles WILL be a better team next year. They have a couple of nice young pitchers that are going to be a year older and a year BETTER (contrasted with the Sox and Yanks, whose staffs will simply be a year older, by and large). Maybe signing Burnett will be enough to raise this team to contention, but I bet O's fans will need a lot of convincing.

The Rays will be MUCH better also. Toronto has a good offense and will have Halladay back. The division will be brutal next year- by far the best in baseball

"I choose my underwear each day based on how likely I am to have sex. Today Im wearing a used grocery bag I found floating across the highway "

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Originally Posted by CTSoxFan

Not to nitpick, but given that the Orioles were in first place for almost half the season, it's not a surprise that they sold a lot of tickets in that time frame. I imagine day-of-game sales plummeted as the O's fell in the standings, but the "false start" this year is going to make it that much harder to sell tickets next year. They will really need a splashy off-season, and I'm not even sure that the free agents are out there to do it.

Having said that, the Orioles WILL be a better team next year. They have a couple of nice young pitchers that are going to be a year older and a year BETTER (contrasted with the Sox and Yanks, whose staffs will simply be a year older, by and large). Maybe signing Burnett will be enough to raise this team to contention, but I bet O's fans will need a lot of convincing.

Did you see the crowds when the O's played Boston and New York? It was almost home games for both teams. When the Yanks and Boston come to Baltimore, the Orioles attract significantly more customers than any other dates. To be fair, when the good teams come to town, the home team should usually draw more but with the O's, at least half of the attendance roots for the visitors.

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Originally Posted by BobbyMurcerFan

Bro, let me introduce you to Kevin Brown, Jaret Wright...

The Yankees payroll is a HUGE advantage.

You bring up the Yankee payroll a lot I notice, even in threads where it's not even the topic, i.e. my "scheduling" thread. Somehow you squeeze it into the conversation. I have two sincere questions: Do you resent the Yankee payroll? Also, what is your feeling about the Sox payroll?

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Originally Posted by Dooley Womack

You bring up the Yankee payroll a lot I notice, even in threads where it's not even the topic, i.e. my "scheduling" thread. Somehow you squeeze it into the conversation. I have two sincere questions: Do you resent the Yankee payroll? Also, what is your feeling about the Sox payroll?

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

Angelos reminds me of that other moron, Tom Hicks. They overspend- sometimes their entire payroll goes to one player- and they often overspend for awful talent. When they get burned and eventually cut back they cry poverty and how they can't compete monetarily with the Yanks and Sox of the world.

Re: Angelos: Orioles Tough Times Over

O's will finally see the light of day once Peter....

1) Leaves the team to his sons

2) Sells the team to a group led by Ripken

To go over each point by point of the errors of their ways the last 8 years would require an enormous amount of time. Instead of looking at the bad decisions---hiring two lame duck GM's,Sosa,Raffy,Ponson,inability for either GM to pull the trigger on any free agents that made a difference (pitching)...
The problems start right at the top and trickle down.

Singelton has said numerous times on Yes "The O's used to be the model of how to run a Baseball team, not anymore".